Sr. Manager, Failure Analysis Lab

Rivian•Tustin, CA

3d•Onsite

About The Position

Reliability is at the core of Electric Adventure Vehicles. This position is in Tustin, CA, at the center of Rivian’s Engineering and R&D hub. As a Sr. Manager of the Failure Analysis Lab on the Failure Analysis & Materials Engineering (FAME) team, you will play a key role in ensuring that our products perform reliably for our customers. The Failure Analysis Lab Sr. Manager will lead a diverse team of scientists, engineers, and technicians, and run a state of the art FA and Materials Characterisation lab.

Requirements

B.S. or higher in Materials Engineering, Chemistry, Physics, Mechanical Engineering, or other related field. M.S. or Ph.D preferred.
Minimum of 10+ years experience in a FA or Materials characterisation laboratory environment. Preferred 15+ years experience.
Minimum of 3 years people management experience. Preferred 6 years people management including scientists, engineers, and technician levels.
Familiarity with common instruments and techniques used in failure analysis and materials characterization. Preferred hands on expertise. E.g. CT scanner, 2D X-ray, SEM, EDS, C-SAM, optical microscopes, DSC, TGA, DMA, x-section & sample prep equipment, electrical test equipment (HiPot, Curve Tracer, VNA/TDR, probe station, nanovolt/ohmmeters, fault isolation testers, lock-in-thermography), etc.
Strong fundamental knowledge of materials science, and root cause failure analysis procedures (fishbone, A3, 5-why, 8D, etc.).
Experience effectively presenting and communicating highly complex technical information in a manner appropriate to a variety of audiences, from the fellow scientist to the executive level.
Experience in the automotive industry is a plus.
A desire to create a respectful, fun, inclusive and inspiring team and company culture is a must!

Nice To Haves

M.S. or Ph.D preferred.
Preferred 15+ years experience.
Preferred 6 years people management including scientists, engineers, and technician levels.
Preferred hands on expertise.
Experience in the automotive industry is a plus.

Responsibilities

Lead, coach, and develop laboratory personnel; advocate for the team, listen to employee concerns, and address issues constructively.
Set clear priorities, ownership, and expected outcomes while balancing company objectives, program milestones, customer needs, technical risk, and team capacity.
Serve as the escalation path when employees face competing requests from multiple customer or program teams; clarify commitments, negotiate tradeoffs, and protect the team from conflicting priorities.
Communicate with internal stakeholders to ensure timely testing for program requirements given the scope and complexity of test/experiment needs.
Build effective working relationships with Product Design, Manufacturing, Reliability, Service, Quality, Supplier Quality, Purchasing, and other customer teams to understand needs and align on deliverables.
Remove roadblocks by securing resources, resolving cross-functional issues, escalating decisions, and ensuring employees have the information, tools, access, and support needed to succeed.
Recruit, onboard, retain, and develop engineers, technicians, and contractors; delegate effectively and maintain the capabilities needed for current and future demand.
Understand company strategy and program priorities to sequence projects and laboratory workflows so critical programs receive the right support and are delivered on time.
Manage laboratory capacity, staffing, equipment availability, and competing customer requests to maintain predictable execution and turnaround times.
Be the enabler for their team to lead technically rigorous failure-analysis and testing execution, ensuring investigations are properly scoped, prioritized, documented, and communicated to decision-makers.
Establish and maintain regular reviews for workload planning, project reviews, KPI tracking, and status reporting.
Coordinate cross-functional laboratory activities and resolve scheduling conflicts that could affect program milestones or customer commitments. This includes management of shared equipment and staffing with laboratories in the same technical development center.
Drive continuous improvement in the company through effective communication to stakeholders of lessons learned from previous FA work.
Own laboratory standards for safety, high-voltage work controls, training, access, 5S, housekeeping, sample traceability, storage, disposition, and audit or customer-visit readiness.
Ensure laboratory personnel follow applicable procedures, controls, and documentation requirements for safe and repeatable work.
Maintain an organized, inspection-ready laboratory environment with clear ownership of workspaces, equipment, samples, and materials.
Identify operational and safety risks early, implement corrective actions, and escalate issues that require cross-functional or leadership support.
Ensure equipment, facilities, and workflows support reliable data generation and high-quality technical decisions.
Develop and maintain the laboratory capability roadmap, including space, infrastructure, equipment, maintenance, calibration, staffing, and technology investments required to support future programs.
Translate company and program priorities into near- and long-term laboratory capacity, capability, and resource plans.
Build and defend business cases for capital and operating needs, including utilization metrics, supplier engagement, procurement inputs, and return-on-investment analyses.
Forecast demand, identify capability gaps, and recommend investments or staffing changes before they affect program delivery.
Partner with leadership and customer teams to align laboratory strategy, funding, milestones, and success measures.
Track budget performance and investment outcomes while ensuring resources are deployed against the highest-value business and program priorities.
Be an advocate for the FA Tustin lab capabilities and the expertise of the team. Actively maintain a close network of customer teams, with regular touch points and lab tours as teams and personnel evolve and renew.